


the voice of experience

by helsinkibaby



Category: NCIS
Genre: Angst, F/M, Het, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-20
Updated: 2018-10-20
Packaged: 2019-08-05 01:07:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,058
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16357700
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/helsinkibaby/pseuds/helsinkibaby
Summary: After a long, traumatic day, Nick figures something out.





	the voice of experience

**Author's Note:**

> For fictober day 13 “next time try harder”

"Go home, Torres." 

Nick startled at the words, dropping his feet from his desk and his hand from his chin. Tearing his eyes away from Bishop's desk, he shifted his focus to McGee who was sitting at his own desk, for once not looking at his computer but instead looking at Nick. 

"I said go home," McGee said again. "Get some rest." When Nick didn't say anything, McGee sighed, glanced across at Ellie's desk. "You heard what Ducky said. Bishop got checked out at the hospital. Bruising, a serious sore throat for a few days, a couple of cracked ribs and mandatory sessions with Jack... but she's going to be fine. She'll be back tomorrow."

"That's not the point." Because even listening to McGee's words had brought back memories that Nick would really rather he didn't have. The hastily stifled gasp of his name from a room upstairs, followed by the sounds of a scuffle. Footsteps pounding as fast as his heart as he and Gibbs went running, to be confronted by the sight of Ellie grappling with a man easily a foot taller than her and twice as wide. Her back was to his chest, his arm tight around her neck as Ellie's fingers scrabbled at it. They were side on to him, but he could still see her eyes starting to roll back in her head and he froze, his gun extended but useless in his numb fingers. Thankfully, Gibbs had had no such problem, took careful aim and shot the guy in the leg, twice, leaving him crumpled on the ground screaming. Not that Nick or Gibbs paid him much attention - he wasn't going anywhere after all and they were much more concerned with Ellie. 

"Then what is?" 

McGee's quiet voice brought him back to reality and Nick clenched his jaw, barely able to put his thoughts into words. "If we hadn't got there in time... if Gibbs wasn't such a crack shot..."

"You can't think like that." McGee's voice was still quiet, but firm, the voice of the team's second in command who was getting used to being obeyed. 

"I can't not. Every time I close my eyes, I see her... think what could have happened if we were a few seconds later... we could have lost her. I could have lost her." He sucked in a deep breath, prepared to speak the truth that he'd only realised hours earlier, the truth that could change his world as he knew it. 

“I love her, man.” 

He expected McGee to show some surprise, for his eyes to go wide and his jaw to drop. Instead, the other man just nodded. “Yeah.”

Thinking that McGee had misunderstood his meaning, Nick shook his head, leaned forward a little. “No, you don’t understand. I’m not just talking a little crush... I’m talking happy ever after, white dress and rings and confetti, the whole nine yards kind of thing...” His hands were moving a mile a minute in illustration, but McGee just kept nodding with that same impassive face. “Wait.” The penny slowly dropped. “You’re telling me you knew?”

His surprise broke McGee’s sangfroid and he stared at Nick as if the other man had said the most ridiculous thing on the planet. “I’m sorry, were you under the impression you’ve been subtle? Nick, you literally did a mating dance in front of her desk. Try harder next time.” 

There was a definite tinge of amusement seeping in near the end there and Nick found himself bristling. "I only figured it out today. How did you figure it out before I did?"

McGee's eyes drifted over to Ellie's desk but there was suddenly something distant, almost sad, in his expression. "Call it the voice of experience." When he looked back over at Nick, it was with a shrug. "I'm pretty sure everyone knows, actually." Nick opened his mouth to protest, shut it in a hurry when McGee continued, "But if it's any consolation, we're all equally sure she loves you too." 

"What?" The spike of pure adrenaline that rushed through Nick's bloodstream had him sitting up, staring at McGee. "Did she say something?" 

McGee actually chuckled. "Bishop? Please." He shook his head, rubbed his chin. "But Nick... seriously, she didn't have to. Any more than you did." 

Hope surged through Nick like a tidal wave and he stood, all ready to go somewhere, to do something. But then his eyes fell on the fourth desk in the bullpen and he stopped in his tracks, dropped back down again, deflated. "But none of that matters, does it?" 

McGee frowned, then followed his gaze to Gibbs's desk. Understanding broke across his face. "Rule Twelve." 

"Rule Twelve," Nick nodded. Not that he was adverse to breaking rules - he'd done it more than a time or two - but Ellie was. And even if she wasn't, this was their careers they were talking about, their lives, their team. Nick had never been on a team before, found himself not wanting to jeopardise that. 

"Nick..." McGee's voice was slow. "I can't believe I'm actually suggesting this... and if Gibbs hears about it, I will deny it... but think about this. Rule Twelve is a Gibbs rule, not an NCIS one. And Gibbs won't be the boss forever." Nick frowned and McGee held up a hand quickly. "I haven't heard anything, I don't know anything more than you do... but he's not getting any younger, Nick. None of us are. And I don't think you should be so quick to walk away from something that could be really great." 

Nick steepled his hands against his lips, dragged them down across his face. "I don't want to lose her, Tim..." he said quietly. "I can't lose her." 

McGee didn't blink. "So don't." 

Nick's eyes moved slowly from his friend's face to Ellie's desk, then across the room to Gibbs's. 

It didn't take him long to make up his mind and, when he did, he grinned. "I'll see you in the morning, McGee." Grabbing his bag, he made for the elevator, pausing only long enough to turn around and see McGee watching him, a grin on his face stretching from ear to ear. "And thank you." 

McGee's grin got wider, something Nick would have said wasn't possible. "Go get her, Nick." 

Nick didn't have to be told twice.


End file.
